What a day!

We hauled out of the driveway at 6:53 a.m. Everyone but Q had by then had breakfast, was nicely dressed, and appropriately groomed. We made it in plenty of time and thus began our week of summer arts academy/"music camp." The kids have a variety of classes including sundry keyboard things which involve an upcoming walk through a local cathedral's organ. It went astoundingly well, in spite of the fact that I'm a volunteer and Q was trailing the activities all day. He ate well, played well, loved the percussion (didn't want to give the instruments back), sang to the bells and chimes, and lost it only briefly when I hadn't provided him with an appropriate change of scene.

The whole experience was just awesome. S got the rhythm for the back beat immediately, all by herself, the only kid in the class to do so. K drew a totally fearsome pirate and is chafing to play the organ. E made a new friend, a girl who was teary-eyed at the beginning of the day, but quickly clued E in to the peculiarities of handbells. G loved everything but choir. The changing voice, you know. The group is well organized, the teachers incredible and so positive.

Tomorrow Q's going to therapy with my darling aunt. My mom is still on the mend so I'd be hauling him with me again if not for "aunt grandma." So I'll be on my own with the bigger kids. We made our lunches again this evening and all were far more willing to close their eyes tonight than they were last evening. A certain level of exhaustion is good for the soul.

When we got home, we split our time between catching glimpses of the Olympics and vacuuming, running laundry, unloading groceries, making and cleaning up dinner, cleaning out the van and organizing things for tomorrow so we can hit it again before 6 in the morning.

I doubt they'll be as excited to pop out of bed tomorrow. Wish me luck.

The boy is sacked out now, having missed out on a nap, so I'm headed off too.